Today’s daf of Bava Basra 166 takes a dry legal concept and soars with existentialism. The daf deals with inconsistent terms in a legal document. Such as inconsistent amounts of loans. The Talmud then cites an inconsistent term. The Talmud states what if the upper portion of a document says someone borrowed a “Kefel” which is termed a cup and in the latter portion of the document states ‘sefel” which is a shirt.

Rav Puppa asks: Are we concerned that a fly swooped down and erased part of the first letter thereby changing the wording and making the document inconsistent.

The Shikkerdovid as I am sure most of the daf yomi people minds must have wandered back to the story in Genesis where Pharoah puts his butler in jail when he finds a fly in his cup. The butler meets Joseph in jail and the rest is history. The Shikkerdovid would like to suggest that the example in the Talmud parallels the story of Genesis to teach a lesson.

A fly can alter history. A fly can alter a document. Is it really a fly? Is life so random? The lesson is clear. Be humble. Be merciful as Hashem can alter someone life with the smalles most insignificant creature.